Maame is 25, living in London as her father's caregiver. She is somewhat immature for her age, as she's never left home to live a life for herself. We are taken on a journey of Maame coming into her own. This character really stayed with me.

I especially loved Maame's 'Googling'. The inner workings on her mind really bring her to life.

While the 1st half of the book was rather slow, I was so invested in Maame's life by the end.

This was a top read for me in 2023.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan for the ARC!

This book was different than I expected based on what I had seen on Instagram and other social media sites. It started off slowly for me and I wasn’t sure it was my cup of tea, but then I found myself really rooting for Maddie and invested in her story. Definitely a story with more weight to it, and a lot of potential for good discussion if you’re reading it with a group.

Really enjoyed this heartfelt yet funny novel about family, grief and growing up. The author's note at the end led me to believe this was a bit of an autobiographical story which made it all the more meaningful! The truths in here about family and grief were very profound and it's hard to believe that this is the author's debut novel. It's so polished. I hope she has many more! She has such an authentic voice.

Twenty-five-year-old Maddie lives in London and is the child of Ghanaian immigrants. She is the main caregiver for her father who is suffering from Parkinson’s and she also supports the family financially. Her mother is often in Ghana overseeing family business and her older brother is off chasing a music career. From a young age, Maddie has had unfair responsibilities and unrealistic standards imposed on her. The consequences of growing up too fast caused Maddie to develop a myriad of psychological, emotional, intellectual, and social problems and she understandably cracks under this unbearable weight.

This is a poignant story about coming-of-age in your twenties and learning how to live for yourself. Maddie was such a well-crafted, lovable character who is learning the importance of setting healthy boundaries for herself. I could relate to her character in many ways and was rooting for her to find happiness. This novel celebrates Ghanaian culture and thoughtfully tackles love, loss, depression, grief, racism, identity, sexuality, and personal growth. It’s a beautifully written story with a truly unforgettable protagonist. Highly recommend!

Jessica George did what needed to be done!

If it wasn’t clear, I thoroughly enjoyed Maame. Maddie was a naive and innocent 20 somethings but I didn’t find her annoying. The story felt authentic and the writing was comforting. I think all of the characters were well done even when they didn’t have full backgrounds. I loved the friendship between Nia/Shu + Maddie - really highlighted relationships with women. I appreciated that Maddie got a “happy” ending in every aspect and her exploration with grief. The sex scenes were semi graphic but at least two were uncomfy for me.

Overall, I think this was a great read. Anybody with complex familial relationships could understand and relate to Maddie’s story and should read this book.

Jessica George perfectly portrays how someone can be dealing with really big things when they are learning how to be an adult themselves. Our MCs father having parkinsons really just tugged on my heart strings. "We grow up fast. Not by force, but because we are needed" HEART SHATTERING. A must read

Wow. This book was incredible. It will be going on my top books of the year list 100 percent.

Maddie is living in London as the primary caretaker for her father, who suffer from advanced stage Parkinson's. Her brother has moved out, and her mother spends most of her time in Ghana, while still managing to be overbearing. When her mum returns from her latest trip, Maddie has the chance to get out of the family home and finally start experiencing life . A Self-acknowledged late bloomer, Maddie makes a list of important "firsts" and is ready to check them off. But just as she is saying yes to all of the things she might say no to in the past, tragedy strikes. Maddie must come face to face with the true nature of her unconventional family, standing up to her boss, and putting her heart on the line.

One of my favourite parts of the book was watching Maddie grow, inserting her voice and becoming stronger. You can't help but root for her. Maddie's therapy sessions are insightful, heartbreaking, and encouraging. The messy relationships in the book are honest, raw, and refreshing.

I was taken back in time when Maddie struggled with new experiences, they were emotional, but at times you couldn't help but smile and silently send encouragement.

Awkward and beautiful, I still can't believe this is a debut novel. I highly recommend the audio, and I thank @librofm for my copy.

Thank you to @stmartinspress for my beautiful physical copy. I can also see why this is a @readwithjenna pick.
and for my Netgalley copy!!
5 ⭐️

This book is beautifully written -- Jessica George is so talented. The evolution of Maddie's relationship with her mother is so heartbreaking but poignant at the same time. Major trigger warning for anyone with a tumultuous relationship with their family but if it doesn't both you this one is definitely worth picking up.

4.5

Loved the British-Ghana audiobook narration for this book. It was a breath of fresh air and such a poignant look at grief and caretaking as a daughter. As she grew into her own, I was routing for her. I can see why so many people (and Jenna) loved this one and this author’s pov for Maame (who goes by Maddie).

. . . ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
I couldn’t read this one fast enough. Often, its usually the thrillers or the romance books that I have a tendency to gobble up, but this was one of those books that I couldn’t seem to put down.

I immediately felt a kinship with Maame. Her character was written in such a way that it allowed for an incredibly immersive experience into Maame’s mind, and created a true understanding of her thoughts and feelings. It also offered the opportunity to truly apqpreciate how her Ghanian culture ( and the way that her mother parented ) impacted the way she viewed or behaved in certain situations.

The moniker of “coming-of-age tales” are usually reserved for those grow-up and glow-up novels starting from a young age, but I find these adulthood coming-of-age stories to be incredibly relatable. While your childhood and youth experiences certainly shape your adult lens, so much “growing up” is done in those early twenties. You learn so much about your strengths, weaknesses, and resilience, and it highlights the idea of what it means to know yourself.

I always value a good mental health spotlight and felt like the subject was tackled honestly and realistically, which isn’t always easy to do. I specifically loved the relationships that Maame had with her friends Shu and Nia in this regard, and they showed the power of having supportive people in your life through good times and bad.

There was something about this book that just spoke to me - Maame as a novel and as a character was relatable and distinctive, and I encourage you to pick this book up.

~👩🏻‍🦰

This witty, charming, heartwarming coming of age memoir kept me engaged throughout, and left me with a smile on my face. It’s easy to relate to the life lessons that she encounters as we were all young and inexperienced once.
Maddie, nicknamed “Maame” by her mother, is a second generation Ghanaian living in London. Though she longs to spread her wings and fly, her launch into life has been postponed because of her duty to care for her father, who has Parkinson’s. Her mother has been flying back and forth to Ghana, spending a lot of time there, and has rarely been present or willing to help Maddie with his care. Now Maddie is 25, and her mother has returned to London permanently, so Maddie is finally able to move out and begin trying out her new wings, later in life than most.
Most people can relate to the difficulties of early adulthood, of finding one’s way with jobs, friendships and love for the first time. It is bittersweet watching her experience the ups and downs of all these things. In addition, she also has to navigate between the expectations of Ghanian culture and the necessity of surviving in modern London. She earnestly tries her best to make good choices, but it’s still turbulent. She is a wonderful young woman and I was rooting for her the whole way.
Highly recommended.

Review: Maame by Jessica George

✏️ Rating: A- // This book has been everywhere since its release earlier this year and for good reason. Jessica George’s writing is beautiful and sparse, and Maddie has such a great voice that is so relatable if you’ve ever felt young and lost. Maddie’s reflections on the complexities of her familial, platonic, and romantic relationships were some of the most memorable moments for me, and I really enjoyed spending time in her rich inner world as she navigates the many firsts of her twenties in the midst of also processing some heavy emotions. I also loved reading about Maddie’s feelings about her Ghanaian family and culture and how it impacts her as she learns to navigate her independence in London for the first time. This a debut that appears to be pretty heavily inspired by the author’s own life and experiences, and I’m really looking forward to seeing seeing what she writes next.

💕 Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book. Pictured is the hard copy received in my BOTM subscription.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a solid book that lived up to the advanced praise. I'll read more by this author in the future.

Maame was such a beautifully written, absolutely heartfelt novel about a charmingly naive woman who endures both moments of gut-wrenching pain and incredible joy throughout a journey of self-discovery and understanding of the world that surrounds us, with a little help from Google and both the lovely and toxic people who become key characters in her life.

I recall that both Maame and Wahala came out around similar times, with similar covers and with stories focusing on Nigerian characters. I kept getting the books confused because of those very shallow similarities and actually ended up reading the books almost back-to-back. But the novels themselves couldn’t be anymore different. Wahala was a toxic drama between frenemies that was messy and eye-roll worthy (though entertaining), and Maame has become one of the most gorgeous stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I found myself smiling to myself and crying, sometimes simultaneously, throughout reading this book, and often noticed that while parts of this book were unbearably sad to me, the book was also hopeful and beautiful in a way that I don’t often feel when reading.

I would recommend this book over and over and it still would never be enough. What an absolute pleasure it was to read this story, even in the moments that absolutely broke my heart.

This book was devastating and then by the time I finished, and without even realizing the shift, felt like a hug. Don't let the bright cover fool you, this story explores dark themes. But inside there is a humanity that is transcendentally relatable.

Maame started off weak to me- I wasn't sure I liked the voice of the the main character, and I felt like it was going to be a book length polemic. But I was so wrong. By the end I was so delighted to be in Maddie's head with her, and although I am lucky enough to not have experienced such loss, it felt like a beautiful tribute to the realities of grief and also embracing truth and life. This novel has a lot to say about racism and family and big topics, but by being so grounded in a central character who does not always make the right choice but does learn from her errors- well, it was much more than the sum of its parts. This is a really great read and it kept me up way past bedtime on a school night so I could find out where Maame's path leads (and whether she can be a woman as well as a caregiver-mother figure). Five stars!

Being raised in a new country but living by the old country's rules is the story of most immigrant children around the world. Parents try so hard to instill the old world in their children that the children struggle with trying to fit into two worlds instead of one.

In Maame, the author illustrates Maddie's struggle to do the right thing by her father and mother while seeing the the gender roles between her and her brother are not balanced. She experiences racism in the workplace and feels as if she is not enough. Additionally, Maddie struggles with making friendships and having relationships because she doesn't know how to be honest about her feelings due to her mother's insistence that outsiders should never know the family's business.

As a child of immigrants Maddie's story and the expectations of maame resonated with me. I felt seen and acknowledged, and a little less different.

This was such a wonderful debut about a young woman finding herself for the first time. Even though she's twenty-five, I would definitely consider this coming-of-age. Maddie was such a likeable character, so it was super easy to connect to her. I felt like all the ways she reacted felt super realistic as well, and this book did a wonderful job with depicting grief and mental health.

Overall, a great book. Just be warned that it does deal with some heavier topics that include grief and mental health, so you may need to be in the right head space for this one. A definite recommend though, and I look forward to checking out more of Jessica George's work in the future.

Wow. What an incredible debut!!! This novel was everything, awkward, heartfelt and heart-breaking. 5 Stars!!!

With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson's. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.